Today we take a little sidestep into the world of puzzle books.  Trust me, you’ll want to see these!

Jen Funk Weber has visited my blog once before when I had a giveaway of her PUZZLER’S GUIDE TO ALASKA. She is a writer, professional puzzle maker, traveler, gardener, and natural history guide. She has created and published hundreds of puzzles and activities for kids of all ages for books and magazines for almost 30 years. She lives with her husband in a house they built overlooking the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska. You can learn more about her at her website or find her on Facebook or on Instagram.

THE PUZZLER’S GUIDES are now triplets.  The first book THE PUZZLER’S GUIDE TO ALASKA came out just last summer. The second book THE PUZZLER’S GUIDE TO OREGON came out last fall.  And the newest book THE PUZZLER’S GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA came out just this October.  They are each unique puzzle books full of fun facts about each state, as well as great kid friendly jokes full of puns.  There are illustrations of animal characters unique to each region that lead the viewer through each book.  Frankly, I haven’t seen anything like these before.  And if that weren’t enough, Jen is also a puzzle creator so there are original puzzles that have never been seen before found within these pages.  These are incredible and super fun collections chock-a-bock full of facts I loved learning.  Plus I admit that I’m a sucker for dad jokes and puns, so these hit such a sweet spot for me that I just had to share.  AND I suspect that these would be the perfect Christmas gift for any puzzle enthusiasts in your life.

Welcome back Jen!

Me: After your Puzzler’s Guide to Alaska, you had two more states: Oregon and now California.  How did you choose which state to focus on next?  Was that you or the publisher? Why skip Washington?

Jen: It was the publisher’s choice to focus on Oregon and then California. Oregon was second because, like Alaskans, Oregonians have fierce pride in their state, so books about Oregon tend to do well there. Also, Multnomah Falls is the #1 most visited site in the Pacific Northwest, so that should be a good place to reach potential readers-puzzlers-book buyers. In fact, I was there shortly after the book came out, and The Puzzler’s Guide to Oregon was in the gift shop right by the register . . . at floor level, next to a different, deeply discounted Oregon puzzle book!

Because California is the most populous state in the US, as well as a popular tourist destination, that seemed like a good place to go next. They’re both great states, but so are Washington, Montana, Utah, and, well, all of them!

It’s all about sales, especially at the beginning of a series. These need to sell well to encourage a publisher to keep producing new ones.

I do, however, have a plan for Washington and other states so that each has different wildlife characters and facts, even though the states share common features. For instance, the southern forests of Oregon are a lot like the northern forests of California, and the Columbia River is important to both Washington and Oregon. We humans placed borders between Washington and Oregon and California, but forests and rivers pay no attention to them. I have plans for all the western states.

And, yes, I’d love to do 50 of these books—or 51; let’s add Puerto Rico. Make that 52; DC should have one, don’t you think?!
While we’re at it, how about Puzzler’s Guides to National Parks, continents, endangered species . . . space!

But necessarily, it all comes down to sales of these early books.

Me: That makes sense.  You have included many wonderful facts about flora, fauna, and landmarks, as well as great jokes that had me giggling (and I’m sure young readers will be too).  How long does it take you to research all of the facts you need to make the puzzles for just one of these books?  Can you talk about your research process? 

Jen: I love to travel, and I collect facts about places, whether I’m writing about them or not. I find natural history facts interesting and noteworthy. I’m always on the prowl for cool info. So, you could say I’ve spent most of my life researching these facts!

When I get the go-ahead for a book, the first thing I do is alert my used-to-be-a-bookseller sister-in-law, Barb, who then scours shelves, lists, and the extensive catalogue in her brain for relevant material. Some of my favorite resources are nonfiction kids’ books, and Barb musters these like a superhero librarian.

Then I hit the internet, collecting nuggets that I think are interesting and important for us to know. And then—then!—come the rabbit holes. The best part! I dive deep into the most interesting facts to see if I can find something unusual, clever, wild. Something different. Memorable.

I also consulted friends who live or lived in Oregon and California, and I reach out to experts, especially when I can’t find an answer to a question—teachers, researchers, park rangers, nonprofit leaders, etc.

One of the joys of these puzzles is that they can take a general fact we all should know and present it through or along with something bizarre or obscure, and sometimes I can cram a bunch of related or unrelated tidbits into a puzzle. I squeeze little nuggets of info in the directions, puzzles, jokes, character banter, and the answer key.

Me: Can you share one of your favorite facts about Oregon that you learned while researching this book?

Jen: One thing pops into my head immediately, but I don’t want to share it here. That feels like spoiling a surprise. And a surprise it was—to me and to my book-guru sister-in-law who lives in the area and sniffs out these kinds of things. We’re not easy to surprise!

But I’ll give you a hint: it’s HUGE! We’re talking the biggest in the world. Or the currently known world, anyway.

Way to go, Oregon!

By the way, since I’ve mentioned Barb twice now, I’ll share that the Oregon book is dedicated to her because she was a tremendous resource for this book in particular. She helped every step of the way, from researching and gathering to winnowing and choosing facts to proofing and testing.

Me: Can you share one of your favorite facts about California that you discovered?

Jen: I loved diving into the food that California produces. I’m a food producer myself: I grow broccoli, kale, cabbage, and more that feeds my husband and me all year. But one fact that dazzles me is that California has the fifth largest economy in the world, behind the rest of the US, China, Japan, and Germany. Food production is part of that. The California governor runs an economy that outstrips most countries.

Thanks for yummy fruits, veggies, and nuts, California!

Me: I absolutely love that you have characters unique to each state that run through the book talking and joking about different things on each page.  Was that your idea or the publishers?  Playing devil’s advocate here, why have characters at all, when the puzzles could speak for themselves?

Jen: I think the characters add a layer of fun and interest to the books. They do for me, too! Plus, they’re a vehicle for sharing further information. They all have personalities and together create a dynamic group. They have backstories about how they met. Those stories could also become books.

For the first time, I went with a tree for a character in The Puzzler’s Guide to California. I love trees and forests in general; playing in the woods was what I did as a kid. And during a winter I spent in the Sequoia/Kings Canyon area, I fell in love with the giant sequoias. I had never seen anything like them. I also have a thing for Tolkien’s Ents, so it was kind of a no-brainer.

Zippy, the short-tailed weasel from The Puzzler’s Guide to Alaska, has become a stand-out character because of his eager, energetic personality. He pushes his way into sooooo many thoughts and scenes in my head. And he pushed his way into the California book! He’s waiting to jump into the next one, too.

Me: I love that!  What do you hope kids will gain by engaging with your puzzle books?

Jen: I hope they’ll gain whatever they most want and need in that moment.

I hope they’ll be entertained so that they want to do more puzzley things, that they’ll embrace challenges, that they’ll be willing to risk failure in the search for fun and knowledge.

I hope they develop interest in places, states, and especially the natural world. I hope they develop empathy for wildlife and flora so that they want to secure the future of all species, not just our own.

I hope they practice, improve, and find delight in their reading skills, their creative- and logical- and divergent-thinking skills, their knowledge of the world.

I hope they’ll enjoy writing on paper and turning pages, take joy in printed material.

I hope they’ll enjoy some quiet, peaceful, thinking time in this hurry-hurry world.

I hope they’ll discover there are different kinds of books and thus something for everyone, all kinds of books for all kinds of readers.

I don’t hope for much, do I?

Me: Did you invent any fun new puzzle forms for either of these two books?  Any favorite puzzle types in them that you made?

Jen: My favorite puzzle is whatever one I’m working on at the moment! Though I can’t pick a favorite puzzle, I do have favorite moments when creating puzzles, and those moments are when I can make cool connections. Puzzlers will know what I mean.

Here’s an example: There’s a puzzle in the California book titled “Alcatraz Jailbirds.” Alcatraz once housed a prison, but the puzzle isn’t about the prison, it’s about birds that inhabit the island. Being able to summon both the prison and the birds with “jailbirds” is a connection that excites and pleases me. In the instructions, I say that prisoners may have felt “hung out to dry.” As an idiom, that refers to prisoners being left behind and punished, but interpreted literally, it refers to the cormorants that perch in trees with their wings extended, drying their feathers after diving in the ocean for a meal.

Finding and arranging bits and pieces to create multiple connections makes my heart and imagination soar, and there are heaps in these books. There are some that many readers won’t even notice, but that doesn’t matter. My hope is that every reader finds something to love, whatever it is.

I’m not sure how much of an “invention” it is, but I did tweak a puzzle style that I like so I could use it in these books.

There’s a kind of puzzle that gives the end point of a path and asks players to find the beginning of that path.

Because these puzzles reveal information, I couldn’t use that puzzle style as it normally appears. So, I added letters. Now, puzzlers figure out the backward path then travel it forward to spell a word. I worried that introducing another item to each box in the grid would be too confusing, but it seems to work. Puzzlers are smart! They figure things out.

Wanna try one? Here’s a puzzle for Simply 7 readers. In it, I reveal a secret about the Puzzler’s Guides that has not been revealed until today.

Thanks for reading and puzzling, everyone!

Aww!  A puzzle just for my blog?  Thanks Jen!  And thank you for stopping by my blog today.

But wait, dear readers.  There’s more!  Jen has agreed to giveaway one copy of THE PUZZLER’S GUIDE TO OREGON.  US contestants only.  You can enter the rafflecopter here.  Good luck!